Saburo and the Kitsune
by slytherinsal
Summary: Saburo as third son finds himself in an unenviable position of being left with nothing material inherited from his father but his natural kindness and wit; when he encounters a fox spirit these are worth more than posessions.


**Saburo and the Kitsune**

Once an old farmer died leaving three sons. Now this old farmer had very little to leave his sons; so he left the farm to the oldest, Ichiro; and he left his ox to the second son, Jiro; and to the youngest, Saburo he left his good will and the desire that he would always do good for the sake of it, and pray to Lord Inari Oo-kami, the kami of fertility, rice, agriculture, foxes, industry and worldly success, patron of blacksmiths and protector of warriors.

Now what the old man had hoped was that the oldest son would employ his brothers for a share of the produce, with the ox of the second able to pull the cart and take produce to market, plough the paddy fields and do all the hard work; and that the youngest, as a labourer would add to the farm's wealth with his work as well as his prayers to Inari. Unfortunately Ichiro did not understand their father's wishes.

"Oh woe is me!" he cried "Though I own the farm, Jiro owns the ox and will take it away to hire out; I will do badly without any ox to help me farm the land! Saburo, you are obviously not favoured by our father at all who has left you nothing! I cannot have a freeloader on the farm; you must leave and go into the world to seek your fortune."

"Our honourable father did leave me something" said Saburo quietly.

"What is that?" cried Jiro "He left you nothing; he left me only an ox with which I must work hard to make ends meet – but he left you NOTHING!"

"He left me his good will" said Saburo.

"And what good will that do?" sneered Ichiro. "Nothing!"

"At least" said Saburo "I am content that when father died he remembered me with his good will; which is more valuable to me than possessions especially since neither of you is satisfied with what you were left and cannot think of the obvious way to make them do better for you."

"What do you mean?" demanded Ichiro furiously "There is NO obvious way for a farm without an ox to prosper!"

"Well if the way is not obvious perhaps it is as worthless to you as father's good will" said Saburo.

"And I see no obvious way that an ox that must travel the neighbourhood with no home may be a cause for satisfaction – even if it is better than only being left good will" said Jiro.

"Well if the way is not obvious to you either, then evidently my ideas are as worthless to you as father's good will" said Saburo "So with father's good will and my prayers to the mighty Inari I shall pack my few possessions and be on my way; for I have no doubt I will fare better than either of you."

oOoOo

Despite his brave words, it may be said that Saburo's heart quailed as he set off on his travels with only five rice cakes between him and destitution. However he prayed to Inari on the start of his journey, and sacrificed one of his rice cakes on the little shrine on the road.

He walked along the dusty road hoping that he would manage to traverse the mountain pass without falling in with bandits, or even worse, the oni who were said to haunt its upper reaches.

Presently he heard the sound of sobbing ahead as he entered the foothills of the mountains; and he swallowed hard, gripping the stout staff he had cut for himself, fearing that it might be some ruse of robbers to take him off the road. However, he could not leave anyone in distress; it would not have been in his nature, even if his father's final wishes had not adjured him to do good for the sake of it.

He was never more surprised in his life when he discovered that the sobbing was issuing from a large fox, indeed a vixen, who had a bruised and bloody head.

"Why good vixen! What has become of you?" Saburo exclaimed, going over to share his water and use some of it to bathe the poor creature's wounds.

Gratefully she licked his hand.

"You are kind, good stranger" she said. "I was waylaid by a bandit; and my most precious possession was stolen from me; my hoshi-no-tama, the jewel of Inari with which I may make fox-fire and do other things; without it I am as helpless as any ordinary fox."

"My lady!" said Saburo "I do not know if I can, but I shall do my best to recover this jewel for you!"

"It is good of you to offer; but I cannot see how" sighed the vixen. "You have helped me though and I shall tell you all I know of this villain so you might avoid him."

"Let us eat first and exchange names" said Saburo. "I am Saburo of Komura; it is only a little village, you probably do not know it."

"Ah, you are the youngest son of Koji; who knew how to honour the Kami. Why have you left your brothers? Was it not old Koji's will that you and your next brother would work on the farm and all prosper?"

"So I understood his words" said Saburo "But my brothers interpreted them differently. Being left nothing but my father's good will – which my brothers consider a worthless commodity – I must seek my fortune. Perhaps this is an omen from Inari that I must learn the way of the warrior and defeat bandits."

The vixen snorted.

"You would be slaughtered boy" she said "You would be better to use your wits which you, unlike your brothers, undoubtedly have in abundance. Not to mention generosity" she added for Saburo had given her two of his remaining four rice balls though she was smaller than he. He was wondering if he had been impolite in asking her name when she bowed to him and said "The name by which you may call me is Asahime; for I was born at dawn."

Saburo bowed deeply as one should to any lady who bore the suffix 'princess' as a part of her name.

"I am honoured Asahime-dono" he said.

"You are welcome, Saburo-san" she returned. "I will recall your kindness."

"Please excuse me, lady, but I have as yet done nothing" said Saburo, who did not consider that he had done anything out of the way in helping and sharing his food. "I must consider. This bandit is a menace to all; but getting back your magical jewel is more important for the time being than dealing with him in a permanent way. We have all afternoon; and if you will aid me I think I have an idea, for I have no doubt that the bandit also knows all the stories of the mountains."

"What have you in mind, clever Saburo?" asked the vixen.

"Why I have it in mind that an oni is going to chase him out of his cave" said Saburo. "When I was a child I used to walk on stilts that father made; if I cut my second pair of hakama to extend the legs of the first" here he sighed slightly because he had not many clothes "Then I might hide the stilts. And a mask coloured orange with some of the orange clays will seem like unto an ogre face; and horns made of rolled paper. If I only had paper it would be easy!"

"Wait there, noble Saburo" said the vixen "And do not cut your good hakama; I will find something to use."

Saburo waited; and sure enough, within half an hour the vixen returned with half a dozen sheets of rice paper and fabric that almost matched his hakama.

"I have magic enough to sew" she said almost shyly "If you will permit me to undertake that part of the disguise?"

"I should be honoured" said Saburo.

With Asahime sewing by some magical means, and Saburo using his quick fingers and clever wits to fashion a fearsome mask, and carving stilts while the pigment dried they soon had a disguise ready. Saburo also carved a bo-ken and used shreds of the leftover material to cover the hilt and blade as though it were a wrapped scabbard and hilt.

"I cannot think of a way to emulate do-maru, let alone O-yoroi, nor even a fine jinbaori alas!" said Saburo.

"Why it is the shape that is important not the ability to protect" said Asahime "There is rice paper left to make sode, pauldrons; and tassets if I use a little of what magic remains to me, which will be gone at nightfall anyway without my fox-fire; and the remains of the fabric pinned into place will look in the half light like the breast plate of O-yoroi. Beware! All the magic will fail when the moon rises unless I have my Hoshi-no-tama!"

"I will be careful, Fox Princess" said Saburo. "It is in the first quarter; it will not rise at this time of year until an hour after dark."

"You are sure you wish to do this?" asked Asahime "I will not think less of you if you do not."

"Lady; I would be shamed if I did not do all I might" said Saburo.

When he had donned all his paper and fabric accoutrements he looked a fearsome figure even in good light; and he made his way quickly towards the bandit's cave, carrying the long hakama and stilts to make better time.

Now it so happened that Saburo was an excellent hunter and very stealthy [which his brothers would both miss with him no longer there to add to the pot] so he crept quietly up to reconnoitre the land. In this way he was able to see exactly how the bandit sat at the entrance of the cave to leap out to ambush travellers; and he was also able to see that the entrance of the cave was wide enough to allow him to slip inside quietly while the bandit was looking out to one side; and make it seem that he had come right through the mountain. And with luck he might do even more.

Quietly he slipped into the cave and strapped on his stilts, pulled on the hakama and put on his paper mask and armour. He sat on a chest full of gold koku to do this, beside a pile of gems. One of them glowed with inner fire.

_Aha_ thought Saburo _that is the hoshi-no-tama of Asahime-dono; if I put that inside my kimono, even if I have to run away, I shall be able to restore it to her._

With which thought he took a deep breath and began crashing the bandit's cooking pot with the big spoon beside it; and bent down to shout into the pot to make it echo.

"WHO HAS COME INTO MY BACK DOOR AND LEFT HIS TRINKETS AND RUBBISH IN THE BACK GENKAN?" his voice echoed and almost scared him!

Saburo however may have been a peasant but he was made of sterner stuff; and he got up quickly and marched out on his stiff stilts, the setting sun coming from one side and making his orange face and its paper horns more ghastly even than in daylight!

The bandit had been terrified to hear the shouting of some mighty spirit from inside his cave – which he had thought had no other entrance [as indeed it did not] and seeing the huge and terrifying goblin form of what looked like an armed and angry Oni; armed with the traditional club that denoted the terrible strength of one of these terrifying ogres even if Saburo's staff was not bound with iron!

The bandit screamed, falling over himself to escape; and as Saburo had hoped scrabbled backwards without looking. And then as Saburo advanced there was nowhere else to go; and with a despairing scream the bandit fell backwards off the steep cliff of the pass.

And that was an end of him.

Saburo laughed as much in relief as any other emotion; and stripped off his disguise. He almost skipped down the path to where Asahime was waiting.

"Here you are Princess of the Foxes" said Saburo cheerfully, taking the jewel from his kimono and passing it to her.

Asahime took it gently in her jaws and tossed it to hover above her tail; and bowed deeply to Saburo.

"What would you like in exchange, oh noble Saburo?" she asked.

Saburo bowed back.

"Please, gracious lady, do not do such honour to a poor peasant with you bow" he said "It was a pleasure to do what I might. I am pleased to have aided you."

"Tell me, noble Saburo, did you take any of the bandit's horde?" asked Asahime.

"Oh no!" said Saburo "That would have been stealing from whoever it rightfully belongs to; and besides I was more concerned with getting your magic jewel back to you safely."

The fox shimmered and where she had been was the most beautiful young woman Saburo had ever seen; indeed she was more beautiful than he could imagine.

"If my lord would consent to wed me, I would be the best wife he could imagine" said Asahime "You are beloved of Inari Oo-kami; for you work hard and use your wits and you are generous and honest."

"Lady; I would love you more than any man has ever loved a woman if you would do me such an honour" stammered Saburo.

Asahime led him over the pass to the small town and there explained to the headman how her husband had slain the bandit and wished the loot to be properly distributed; and the headman sent word to the local Daimyo; and soon Saburo was the news of the neighbourhood; and the Daimyo heard his story.

"Saburo, that is a tale of courage that makes you worthy to bear two swords" said the Daimyo "From now on, you are samurai and you shall have two names; your family name shall be Zenkojin, a person of the good fox. And you shall have a stipend worthy of such a name and I shall set you over the village from which you have come. And of the wealth of the bandit that cannot be restored I shall take a tenth and the rest will be yours; because a totally honest man should be honoured. But if I find you took even one silver piece from the hoard I will take your head."

Saburo knelt.

"Then sama you must take my head; for I took the jewel that belongs to my wife the kitsune."

The Daimyo laughed.

"Ah, my honest retainer!" he said "You did not take that for yourself; but to return it to the owner. Stand and take these swords!"

Bemused, Saburo took the swords; and it may be said that the amount of money that could not be returned was great enough for him to build a fine house in the village, and give enough to his brothers to make them well off and still have plenty to set aside for future emergency.

And when Ichiro and Jiro found out that it was their brother who was the samurai set over them, and that he was generous towards them, and that he had the most beautiful woman in all Japan as his wife they were not happy for him, nor glad that he remembered them despite their unkind words towards him; but were jealous. And each determined to set out himself and see if he might win a fox bride and wealth too.

But the misfortunes that they encountered are another story.


End file.
